


Forget About Fate

by halfagonyandhope



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 19:23:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14361999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfagonyandhope/pseuds/halfagonyandhope
Summary: He wants to plead for her forgiveness, to drop to his knees and beg her to take him back, but he knows the timing is all wrong. Timing had never been their thing – strange, really, considering their experience with time travel.So, instead, he takes a step closer and says, “How about it, baby doll? Could you spare a few months’ time to let me get my head on straight?”Her smile is radiant.“Sure thing, sweetheart.”





	Forget About Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bit of fix-it fic should the latter half of the season require it. (I should be studying for finals, but I'm getting pulled into this fandom instead. And I regret nothing.)

She finds him in the hallway, and he knows what she’s going to say before she says it. It’s like being on another jump, knowing how history plays out but being helpless to change its course.

“You’re leaving,” he says, not quite sure what to feel. _Heartbroken? Shattered? Disbelieving?_ But it’s none of those things. What he settles on instead is quiet. Just quiet resignation.

Jess steps toward him, meeting his eyes with the intensity that made him fall in love with her. She nods. “You’re not the man I thought you were,” she says. She reaches out to touch his elbow. “And that’s a good thing – _believe me_.” She sighs. “But here’s the thing. We’re not who we were in high school. I’m not the girl you fell in love with. I was once, but…” She shrugs. “Well, you know better than anyone how time changes things. How time changes people.”

Wyatt’s eyes rove over her face, wondering if this will be the last time he sees her.

Jess continues. “I love you,” she says. “A part of me will always love you. But something’s not right. And you deserve more. So do I.”

He’s in awe of the composure of her voice, the steadiness, the unwavering strength of her core.

“I…” He has to swallow before he can get the words out. “I always thought that if I found a way to change time, to bring you back, we’d just – I don’t know – ride off into the sunset together. Our own fairytale ending.”

Jess gives him a half smile. “I want you to get that ending, Wyatt. That’s why I have to go.”

She bridges the distance between them, rises onto her toes, and kisses his cheek.

“Thank you,” she says. “For the telegram I never got. For going back in time for me.” She grabs his hand, and he feels her press a cold band of metal into his palm.

He can’t bring himself to respond. What does one say, after all, when breaking up with your once-dead now not-dead wife? He sighs. He still doesn’t believe in fate, or destiny, but he wants to curse at the universe for the unfairness of it all. Does he lose Jess in every possible timeline? Will he never be enough to save her? To save them?

She’s long gone by the time he’s pulled himself together, and he slips her ring into his pocket. Then he reaches for his left hand with his right, twisting his own ring to remove it. He drops this into a different pocket, somehow not quite comfortable with both bands resting together.

His attention is drawn by sunlight streaming through the open door ahead of him. Realizing that Jess must not have closed it when she hurried out, he moves forward to pull it shut. Before he does so, however, a brilliant ray crosses his face, and he looks up instinctively, closing his eyes and reveling in the warmth.

He focuses on feelings that give him this same warmth. Rufus’ laugh. Lucy’s smile. Jiya’s nerdy references. Lucy’s voice. Agent Christopher’s mother bear tendencies. Lucy’s heart.

Lucy.

“Wyatt?”

He turns at the sound of her voice, her concern apparent.

He pulls the door shut, locks it, and walks toward her. She’s as brilliant as the sun in this darkened, damp, and desecrated hallway, and her gravity pulls him in.

“She left,” he confirms when they’re face to face, and Lucy’s expression falls. Her sadness for him is genuine, and this floors him.

“Oh, Wyatt,” she says, looking like she wants to reach out to him but ultimately deciding not to.

“Things were never going to be how they were in the past,” he admits. “And we weren’t right for each other in the present. Or in the future.”

Lucy just looks up at him, her eyes bright and forgiving and everything he realizes he needs.

“Wyatt, if there’s anything I can –”

He has to smile at this. Is there anyone in the world more selfless than Lucy Preston?

He looks down, shaking his head. “I’m okay,” he assures her. “I just...I just need a little time.”

“Of course,” she says, and her tone tells him it hasn’t even crossed her mind to ask what this means for them.

He wants to plead for her forgiveness, to drop to his knees and beg her to take him back, but he knows the timing is all wrong. Timing had never been their thing – strange, really, considering their experience with time travel.

So, instead, he takes a step closer and says, “How about it, baby doll? Could you spare a few months’ time to let me get my head on straight?”

Her smile is radiant.

“Sure thing, sweetheart.”

He grins.

* * *

It’s eight weeks later – and eight decades earlier – when he finally uses the term of endearment again. He has a gun in hand, she a knife strapped to her ankle. They have approximately five minutes until all hell is scheduled to break loose.

Wyatt looks over at Lucy, staring down into eyes that immediately drown him.

“We gotta stop getting ourselves into trouble, baby doll,” he says.

She chuckles. “Sweetheart, trouble usually finds _us_.”

They stare at each other, neither wanting to break the hold, and he wills himself to be brave.

“You were never a consolation prize,” he whispers. “She was my past, but _you_ are my now.”

Her lips part slightly in surprise, and he thinks her eyes look more glossy than usual. He reaches for her and pulls her close, so that her body is flush against his. His heart syncs with hers, both beating double time.

“I haven’t changed my mind about ‘meant to be’,” he continues, feeling out of breath. “I still think it’s a load of crap. But somehow, every timeline, every life I’ve lived – they’ve all led me to you. It’s not fate, or destiny, or the Force. It’s more than that. This is me turning to the person who I can trust to travel to the end of time to save my ass if I need it – and I probably will. This is me choosing, over and over again, to do the same for her. This is me...choosing you.”

Lucy bites her lip, hesitating for a second as she takes in his words. He can pinpoint the exact moment she lets herself believe them.

Then she flings herself into his arms.

“You are my now,” she whispers in his ear, “and my future.”

He kisses her soundly, fiercely, intensely. When they part, he rests his forehead against hers.

“And now?” he says.

She flashes a grin at him before pulling away.

“And now we save the past.”

And, like always, he dashes after her into the chaos.


End file.
